Bangalore: Fazed by the job loss syndrome amidst the recession, employees in India turn out to be innovative in conjuring fresh excuses for leaves, while firms scout for ways to slash workforce. Topping the charts of innovation in excuses are like 'people are dying of accidents in the family', cousin's marriage (bless all the thousands of cousins who gets married in a single month) and pet is not well.

The regular phrase 'not feeling well' is now innovated with some additions like 'mom is not well', 'pet is not well' and 'neighbor is not well so have to take him/her to hospital'. Kavita Rao, Vice President and Head (Global Human Resources) said, "Most of the time the employees take leaves citing that he or she has to take care of a sick child or parent." Maternity or paternity is also a key excuse to abstain from work. But if illness doesn't work, then it's the word 'death', which replaces the 'not well' part.

Moreover, the office staff is also seen to take the help of their boozing habits to frame excuses like 'feeling dizzy as I boozed a lot' and 'my BP (blood pressure) has gone high due to over drinking'.

An employee of Indusind bank said, "To skip office employees have resorted to excuses like 'friend met with an accident' and 'lost my key of the house-lock'." Superstition also plays a good role in conjuring excuses like 'astrologer has asked not to move out of home today'. Majority of the people, who missed office under the pretext of some excuse, took leaves either to complete some household chores which have been pending or to avoid office happenings.
However, this trend of employee absence is a significant cost to 90 percent of businesses as per findings of the survey of the research firm CIPD. It reveals that on average, employee absence costs employers eight working days for every member of staff per year; this represents 3.5 percent of working time. Yet majority of the employers do not question the reasons for being absent.

"Employees are assessed on their performance and their continued employment depends on them following company policies. An inadequate reason for leave will not and cannot be a reason for termination," said Kavita. But a few do cross check through measures like asking for doctor's note. Infact, Aleem, an executive of Bearys Group said, "Two of my colleagues from my previous company have been fired as they had the habit of taking several days of leave, like 10 days in a month."